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How Long Until the Drones Die?

I'm in Houston, TX. I wish I had taken better notes last fall of when I still saw drones and then didn't. Anybody else down here have an idea how long the boys will still be in town? I had a pretty catastrophic fall splitting debacle go down and am thinking about trying to graft once more in an effort to try one more time at making some fall splits.

And ideas on how long I've got would be great. I'm OK with feeding and nursing the bees to build up into the fall. I guess my two biggest risks are how long I still have drones to mate, and then how long the queens will lay into the fall to get the population up. Thoughts?

Re: How Long Until the Drones Die?

Governed by hives resources, climate and season Theres no definate answer. My hives still have drones and drone brood, not as many as in spring summer but they are present. In your warm climate the queen may never totally stop. In my climate I believe december, depends.

Re: How Long Until the Drones Die?

Does anyone have oldtimer tricks like "until after the goldenrod flow" or until after the first frost? I know this is not applicable everywhere, but just kind of curious. I know my bees stopped laying drones last winter (that was my first winter with bees), and I recall the excitement this spring in early March when I found the first capped drone cells. I had all BeeWeaver bees, native to this climate, and they all but stopped laying even brood through the winter. However I also had one feral colony from a removal and that queen kept one frame full of brood all winter! But she did cease laying drones.

Re: How Long Until the Drones Die?

yeah I did. I should have said singular nuc. They were a small swarm caught in august. If they don't make it no biggie. I put inverted nuc ontop of the top main nuc box put 3 boardman feeders of 2:1 inside. I also have a qt of honey that spilled on the ground to put on too, probably middle of october. Im just worried they can't defend it. I put on a screen to discourage robbers. We'll see what happens, i plan on heading overtommorow.

Re: How Long Until the Drones Die?

I see a few drones still and it is a good thing too: I have a few queens emerging in mating NUCS this morning. We still have five or seven weeks until frost I think.
Zone 7b, 35 miles SW of Fort Worth.

Re: How Long Until the Drones Die?

interesting, noticed a number of years ago that Konia stock did not kick out their drones in massive quantities, still drones present in winter, even have several winters these girls let drones stay in the hive

Re: How Long Until the Drones Die?

Interesting, I just followed up on this thread. I see how Julysun commented that 1/4 hives were tossing drones, when two southerners right before said they had plenty. And Irwin weighs in with the mention of a certain stock not tossing drones in massive quantity.

Anyway, I wanted to share. I checked the hives a few weeks ago, around the beginning of December and still saw a few drones then. Not in all hives, but a few. No drone brood I don't believe, but still live drones. I checked again December 28th and saw no drones. Granted I was working fast and not really looking for them, but didn't notice any, or any drone brood. We've had a couple of frost since the beginning of December, so maybe that was the last straw. Then again, I noticed one of my girls with pollen on her legs on the 28th! Not sure where she got that.

I also had a guy call me several months ago now (probably in October time frame), whom I had sold a hive to, and he was concerned because "it looked like these bigger bees were trying to rob his hive, and his bees were kicking their butts...." I advised they were tossing the drones and I assume all's well as he never called back with bigger problems.

So indeed, it's interesting that some hives toss them so much sooner than others in the same climate. I wish I had more time to document all of this to try and focus on hives that don't toss them as soon and possible breed for it. I have a few queens still laying strong despite the cooler weather we've had. If only I could keep some drones flying, I could create my own line of "Winter Free Bees"!

Re: How Long Until the Drones Die?

Originally Posted by Lburou 28 SEP

I see a few drones still and it is a good thing too: I have a few queens emerging in mating a NUC this morning. We still have five or seven weeks until frost I think.
Zone 7b, 35 miles SW of Fort Worth.

FWIW, That one queenless NUC managed to produce a queen that was mated enough to be laying today with regular small batches of brood. I keep that NUC in the shop and put them out on nice days. Feed them in the dark under a red light. Still had drones in other hives mid December.